"Kookaburra" was a traditional nursery rhyme. Trish Webber sang it to calm her daughter Chloe whenever times got tough. The song's effect on Chloe subdued a monster based on a drawing of her father. (TV: Fear Her [+]Matthew Graham, Doctor Who series 2 (BBC One, 2006).)
Trish was heard to sing, in part:
Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree
Merry, merry king of the bush is he
Laugh, Kookaburra! Laugh, Kookaburra!
Gay your life must be
Behind the scenes[]
- A loop of the song plays in the Art Attack game on the Defending the Earth! website. The audio itself originated from Barney & Friends.
- The song is strongly associated with the Girl Guides, since writer Marion Sinclair originally wrote it for a Girl Guides song competition in Australia. This makes it likely that audience members Chloe's age in Britain would have recognised the song on transmission several parts of the English-speaking world. The song has no particular tradition, however, in the American Girl Scouts, perhaps lessening the impact of the song on American audiences.